[USML Announce] USML Second-Half Preview

[Brad Jansen]

A forecast, from top to bottom:

*FLAMING BRATS: *
  What to expect: Team stays the course and hopes Nukes and Berliners fail
to make big moves. In any event, such dump deals could help Brats because
they'd grab offensive points from dumpers. Main concern is pitching holds
steady--and that's a question mark.
  Player to watch: Pujols. Period. End of story.

*NUKES:
     *What to expect: occasional emails about families' appearances in
major sporting publications. Offense showing signs of leakage. Traded
Konerko at right time as wrist troubles obviously have hurt his production,
but what will Joyce's absence mean?
     Player to watch: Darvish. Let's see how second half in Arlington takes
its toll. Could carry or destroy team's pitching numbers.

*BERLINERS:
*      What to expect: boastful trade news or bitter recriminations--still
hard to get a read on a team that could burst Brats' bubble and has young
cheap keeps to do it....but where is the market?
       Player to watch: Myers.With soon help in offensive categories,
either as cornerstone in big trade or as member of Berliners active roster.

*ANGRY YOUNG MEN:
        *What to expect: With Shabes, expect the unexpected, but one
suspects any blockbusters would already have been made--and no, landing
Chris Davis doesn't count.
         Player to watch: Axelrod. With Floyd now injured, this kid will
remain in rotation. And the AYM need all pitching depth it can take on.

*KLEiN NINE:
*       What to expect: Desperate last ditch efforts to salvage pitching
numbers in hopeless quest to remain in 5th.
       Player to watch: Carl Crawford--is he any better than Ryan Sweeney
at this point?

*HDs:
       *What to expect: biweekly email bursts that alternately vow to
continue the fight or to solicit dump deals.
       Player to watch: Evan Longoria. Where is he, anyway?

*LMC:
         *What to expect: More mutterings if Konerko can't start producing
runs, esp. with Ellsbury back.
         Player to watch: Profar. Cornerstone of this season's surprise
blockbuster?
*MRH:
          *What to expect: More photos of big tires as last season's champ
succumbs to Howard Hughes-like eccentricities.
          Player to watch: Adam Jones. Has time to move him passed as he
regresses to mean in stunning fashion?
*BB:*
           What to expect: fact-check emails about Bubba Starling.
           Player to watch: Gavin Floyd, but only if you're a passionate
Sox fan who thinks they have a shot this year.

*RT:
          *What to expect: Renewed efforts to trade Buchholz.*
          *Player to watch: Nick Franklin. League will soon see why Rips so
willingly traded young slugger Justin Smoak.

*AFV:
    *       What to expect: relentless efforts to trade Cano.
           Player to watch: Brett Anderson. First player out of
infirmary--perhap?*

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